Based on extensive interviews and police wiretaps, Brown's investigation uncovered the connection between "hip hop hustlers" and actual street hustling.
The dangerous connections and unflattering details exposed by Brown led journalist Chuck Klosterman to remark: "If somebody doesn't get shot because of this book, I will be fucking amazed."[5]
The book additionally goes into depth about the extreme tension that existed at the time between law enforcement and drug kingpins such as Fat Cat. This book marks several murders between both sides that added to the increasing chaos of Southeast Queens at that time.
Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice
Brown's second book,[6] published in 2007, looked at the complicated and often conflicting relationship between law enforcement and paid and unpaid informants.[7]
Snitch was subsequently banned from all US federal prisons.[8]
The book was named to The Root's list of "smartest, strongest writing about race."[citation needed]
Shake the Devil Off: A True Story of the Murder that Rocked New Orleans
Brown's third book,[9] published in 2009, involved Brown's moving to New Orleans to investigate the story of a murder-suicide committed by Zackery Bowen, an Iraq War-veteran.[10][11]
Bowen's murder of his bartender girlfriend Adriane "Addie" Hall[12] in October 2006 post-Hurricane Katrina became a national story amidst speculation of cannibalism and Bowen's dramatic suicide off the roof of the Omni Hotel in the French Quarter.[13]
Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?
Brown's fourth book,[15] published in 2016, is an expansion of Brown's nearly 8,000 word investigative-reporting driven feature story published in Medium.com, titled “Who Killed the Jeff Davis 8?” (January 2014), which resulted from Brown's two-year investigation of the unsolved homicides of eight female prostitutes in Southwest Louisiana.
Although the case, known as the “Jeff Davis 8”, received nationwide attention in such outlets as The New York Times and CNN, Brown formulated a new theory of the case: that it was not the work of a serial killer. He backed up this theory by citing copious evidence from homicide files, witness interviews, and autopsy reports.
Murder in the Bayou has been highly praised by John Berendt, Harold Schechter, and Janet Reitman.[16][15][17][18]